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Super Freaks

It’s one of me and Miss Penn’s favourite shows (and contributed splendidly to our stockpile of images of the site’s mascots, Cowboy Jensen and Jared) so there’s plenty of excitement over the news in this little corner of the internet.

Now of course I enjoy the emotional drama and angst, the horror and despair, the blood and gore, the ghosts and demons… it’s all integral to the show. Arguably, however, my favourite aspect is the humour.

It started off with witty one liners and brotherly banter, but very soon Supernatural was pastiching the genre, every other genre and itself.

So I though a top ten of the crackiest, most ridiculous Supernatural episodes was in order- and here it is in chronological order in fact. The only problem I had was whittling it down to a mere ten mad episodes.

Sadly all the best clips seem to have had embedding disabled, but I strongly suggest following the links to watch them on YouTube. If you enjoy fun, that is.

Hell House

Although relatively tame by later standards, ‘Hell House’ was really the first episode that brought in a meta component. It also featured a hilariously escalating prank war between the boys, bringing some more levity in amongst the doom and gloom. The, rather rubbish, paranormal investigator duo formed by Ed and Harry (later known as the Ghostfacers) nicely satirize not only the characters of ghost-hunting and monster-killing brothers Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles), but also the conventions of the show.

Ed and Harry, despite being aware of what’s really out there, seem to see everything as a story. They ask themselves WWBD (What Would Buffy Do?), run a website which attracts so much attention it adds to the ghost’s power and buy into Sam’s prank- believing that Hollywood producers want to meet with them.

Tale Tales

Quite possibly my favourite episode, and the one that I’m always forcing people to watch. It’s a non-linear narrative, with the Winchester brothers each telling their version of events to Bobby (Jim Beaver). It was also the first appearance of the Trickster- and his warping of reality which in this episode included slow dancing aliens and an alligator in the sewers. You’ve got to respect the classics, after all.

Bad Day at Black Rock

Sam touches a rabbit’s foot, and his life suddenly gets fantastically fortunate- it’s all winning scratch cards and stumbling across gold watches. But when the foot’s stolen from him his luck turns sour, he ends up scalded, scratched and bloodied, and set on fire. He even knocks himself out just as the men hunting him turn up. And to top it all off, the poor boy loses his shoe.

Yellow Fever

This episode was funny (although also angst heavy) in itself, given that the normally fearless Dean becomes incredibly scared of everything (including Yorkies) when he’s infected with Ghost Sickness. Jensen Ackles’ girly screams are hella hilarious, but the best part of the episode has to be what happened when Jared ignored his cue to see what would happen…

Instead of the resulting ‘Eye of the Tiger’ dance simply being included in the DVD gag reel it was tacked onto the end of the slightly short episode, and become a huge YouTube hit.

Wishful Thinking

When a wishing well starts granting wishes in a small town, everything goes haywire and the boys are pretty stumped by a polite “ghost” haunting the women’s changing room and a drunk, porn-addicted “Bigfoot”. This is what happens when you let Ben Edlund write stuff:

Teddy: It’s a terrible world, why am I here?!

Audrey: For tea parties!

Teddy: Tea parties? Is that all there is?

The Monster at the End of This Book

Sam and Dean find out that there’s a series of books called Supernatural about brothers called Sam and Dean who fight ghosts and monsters. They track down the author who’s currently writing himself into a Vonnegut-esque story where he’s confronted by his characters.

The boys also discovered slash fanfiction about themselves in the episode, an example of which would later be included in the season five premiere ‘Lucifer Rising’. Why yes, this show does literally generate its own fanfic, mocks the fandom, and has authors assuming that they’re gods.

Changing Channels

The boys get trapped inside a TV world of the Trickster’s creation. The episode sends up Grey’s Anatomy and CSI: Miami, creates a Supernatural sitcom and puts Sam through getting hit by a Nutcracker in a Japanese game show, having to advertise herpes treatment and getting turned into a sentient car à la KITT.

The Real Ghostbusters

Sam and Dean are tricked into attending a Supernatural convention, and are rather insulted by their fans’ outfits, impressions and comments. Of course the site turns out to actually be haunted, and they have to team up with a pair of Winchester wannabes to stop the ghosts. This pair, who turn out to be a couple, are named Demian and Barnes in honour of the Supernatural recappers and mods on Television Without Pity, cos this is the show which ships its own fans.

Clap Your Hands If You Believe…

Supernatural suddenly turned into The X-Files, understandable enough given the amount of cast and crew they seem to have nabbed from Mulder and Scully. The homage only continues as long as the alien cover up is believed, as it turns out that the real culprits in the town are fairies, but it was fun while it lasted.

The French Mistake

Sam and Dean are sent into an alternative reality where they’re mistaken for the actors Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, who play Sam and Dean Winchester on a show called Supernatural. They even find clips of Jensen from his time on Days of our Lives!

They think they’ve found salvation in the presence of their guardian angel Castiel- but it turns out to only be the twitter-addicted actor who plays him, Misha Collins. They also think the demon Ruby has reappeared, but that’s just Jared’s wife Genevieve– and her pet alpaca.

The wonderful mix of fantasy and reality is nigh on perfect, if only there’d been some Danneel I couldn’t have been happier.

There’s plenty more funny moments in this show- the boys becoming Hollywood PAs in ‘Hollywood Babylon’, some of Dean’s death scenes in ‘Mystery Spot’, the alternative universe version of the Winchesters in ‘It’s A Terrible Life;, the permanently stoned Castiel in the vision of the future shown in ‘The End’, Dean’s glee over dressing like a cowboy in ‘Frontierland’ and and and and and…

Have you got a favourite funny Supernatural episode or scene? Tell us about it in the comments, gratuitous clips and pics are encouraged of course!